Host of firms win places on massive NHS framework

Exclusive: More than 90 consultants win places on ‘one-stop shop’ framework to offer services to NHS

Aedas, Gardiner & Theobald and Capita are among more than 90 consultants to have won places on a “one-stop shop” framework for the NHS covering architecture, surveying and engineering services for health clients across England, Building can reveal.

The multi-million pound framework, which breaks down into 12 regional lots and runs for four years, replaces a more limited framework that only covered architecture and quantity surveying.

It will be used by all 600 NHS Trusts and 243 NHS Commissioning organisations to procure consultants for new build and refurbishment works for buildings including hospitals and GP surgeries.

The biggest winners were Aedas, Gardiner & Theobold, NPS, Rider Levett Bucknall and Capita, which won roles across all nine disciplines and all 12 regions.

Other major winners were Ingenium Archial, Pick Everard, URS and WYG, which won places across all regions and all but one disciplines.

The framework is being run by the NHS Shared Business Services (SBS) - a joint venture between the Department of Health and private sector firm Steria.

A spokesperson for NHS SBS said the new framework, which went live last month and accounts for BIM services for the first time, has “greater flexibility” in terms of how projects are priced and has an increased number of SME participants.

The framework also covers Scotland and Wales, but is only available to non-NHS public sector bodies, such as the police, in these countries as each has their own NHS frameworks.

The 12 regions are the North-east, the North-west, Yorkshire & Humber, the East Midlands, the West Midlands, the East of England, London, the South-east coast, South Central, the South-west, Scotland and Wales.

The news that contractor Bam has been dropped from five London schools worth almost £50m, after, it is understood, claiming it could not deliver two of them without making a loss, has thrown the problem of cost inflation firmly into focus